Press Start to Play by Daniel H. Wilson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I was sucked in by the vibrant colors of the cover and the promise of fictional video game nostalgia, I’ll admit.
I enjoyed “God Mode,” “NPC.” “Respawn” reminded me a little of Claire North’s excellent Touch, and I liked “Desert Walk” and “Rat Catcher’s Yellows” wasn’t bad. So the collection was going along at an okay clip. “1UP” was a fun little chase of a story.
Some of the magic of video games seems to get sucked out, dried out on a table, and then pinned into a memory book like a pixelated butterfly in fiction form, especially when the story dwells just a little too long on the description, the whimsy, and cotton-headed stupor video games can induce. It’s a little like being the sober person at a raging, drink-soaked party. Maybe it’s the experience of reading story after story after story about video games that you begin to feel like the kid left to the side, relegated to just watching the other kids play the video games, never getting your own chance. Which is exactly what the next story, “Survival Horror” feels like, and is about, in fact. The sense of drama, of tension, is all watered down and it takes a real effort to care about what’s going to happen, even though you’ve been told you should care, because the stakes are high. Or so you’re told.
“REAL” was another good story, though, with a bit more at stake, without beating you over the head with it. I thought “Roguelike” was a cute story, buried amongst the next pile, and “Twarrior” wasn’t bad, nor was “Select Character,” but I think by that point (those were the last two stories in the collection) I was just looking to get out more than anything.